The presentation is structured as follow:
 

• First the main goal of the project will be presented
• Second the different phases of the project (phase I and phase II) will be briefly described.
• Then the participating partners are presented
• Finally, the sensors used for phase 1 will be presented.

Goal

The main goal of this project is to investigate the potential of airborne remote sensing in the scope of minefield detection. Several sensors will be flown over mine polluted areas. The produced images will be used to detect minefields or minefield indicators.

In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, two sub goals should be reached:

1. The detectability of indicators should be demonstrated. Photo interpreters will analyse the images to locate minefield indicators. For this tasks classic tools, such as stereoscopes to get 3D information or simple image processing to enhance the images in order to highlight objects of interest, are used. Some specific image processing tools are also developed.
2. The possibility to interpret scenes of realistic sizes should be demonstrated. A lot of mine indicators might be quite small. Therefore, high resolution images will be used. For mine polluted regions of size typically encountered in practice, a huge amount of data will be produced. The detection process is a complex task for  which a lot of contextual information must be used. Therefore skilled human photo interpreters must be highly involved and automatic image processing based systems do not seem promising. However, image processing tools that pre-filter the incoming data flux by detecting regions of interests are quite promising. Those regions of interest are then presented to the photo interpreter who will make the final decision.
Before going to a real mine polluted country, a first phase has been planned to test the whole system in a simulated minefield in Belgium. Phase I has now been completed and validated by the European Commission.

Phase I

Phase I is the test of the whole system in a simulated minefield in Leopoldsburg, Belgium. This phase ended successfully in June 1998 when the European Commission allowed the consortium to go to Phase II.

Phase II

Phase II is the flight campaign in a country polluted by mines. This phase began in July 1998.

The partners

• ITC

Prime contractor of the project, they provide photo interpretation of the images.
• project co-ordinator: professor Dr. J. L. van Genderen (e-mail)
• project manager: Ben Maathuis (e-mail)
• project assistant: Loes Colenbrander (e-mail)
• head of the Bureau Project Co-ordination: I. J. J. Beerens (e-mail)
• financing: Jan Schipper (e-mail)

 
• CAE Aviation

They provide the aircraft.
 
• SSC (Swedish Space Corporation - Satellitbild)

They provide satellite imagery for change detection.
 
• EOS (Earth Observation Sciences)

They will perform high level data fusion using context information.
 
• Recon Optical

They provide a thermal camera.
 
• Geograf

They provide logistic support and help in preparing the campaign.
• Aerodata

They provide near infrared photos as well as orthophotos.
 
• Eurosense

They provide colour and colour infrared cameras. They also use the Recon thermal sensor.
 
• RMA (Royal Military Academy)

RMA help to organize the Belgian campaign. The minefield in Leopoldsburg is made available through RMA. The geodesy department measured the positions of all the mines in order to have a ground truth for evaluation. SIC is involved in image processing, registration and data fusion.
 
• VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

ETRO department is involved in image processing and data fusion. They are also in charge of managing the data base of all images acquired in Leopoldsburg. Their work can be found there.
 
• ZEO (Zeiss Eltro Optronic GmbH)

They provide a digital colour camera and a MFLIR.
 
• IGI GmbH

They provide INS, DGPS and CCNS. They also help sensor integration.
 
• Aerosensing Radarsysteme GmbH

They provide radar (X-band and P-band).
 
• NPA (Norwegian People's Aid)

They provide logistic support and help the preparation of the campaign.

Descriptions of sensors used for Phase I

• Zeiss MK2000 Camera (Aerodata)
 

Type	Near infrared
Required lens focal length	305 mm
scale	1:1,000 if the aircraft flies at 1,000 feet
film width	23 cm
Swath	2,300 m
Maximum achievable ground resolution	between 1.5 cm (15 micrometers) and 3.5 cm (35 micrometers)
Lens average distortion	2 m
Exposure	between 1/60 and 1/1,000 s (automatic, continuous diaphragm settings)
Spectral wavelength	500-900 manometers
Sensitivity	up to 400 ASA

The camera is provided with FMC (Forward motion compensation) and AMC (Angular motion compensation).
• VOS 80C Digital Camera (ZEO)
 

Type	Colour
Format	digital video (AMPEX)
Focal length	f = 80 mm f/3.5
Detector	Kodak 3 x 6,000 pixels
Pixel size	12 micrometers
Field of view	48.5 degrees
Maximum line rate	1,600 l/s
Resolution	32 mm at 700 ft (213 m)
Ground coverage	194 m
Control unit	dGPS, CCNS Aerocontrol

• MFLIR (ZEO)
Although planned, MFLIR was not used in Phase I. Nevertheless some flights have been performed with an helicopter by Eurosense. The sensor used was a Westinghouse MicroFLIR (Micro forward looking infrared, 8-12 micrometers) in a stabilized camera system WESCAM.
• CA-860 IRLS sensor (Recon)
This is a line scanner.
 

Type	Thermal infrared
Format	digital video (AMPEX)
Wavelength	8-12 micrometers
Resolution	0.25 mrad, 9 cm
Field of view	120 degrees
Cross track coverage on the ground	around 1 km
NETD performance	0.2 degree Celsius
Warm --> cold	Light --> dark
Size detectable	aircraft altitude AGL x 0.0025
Ground coverable	aircraft altitude AGL x 3.46
Control unit	dGPS, CCNS

NETD: Noise equivalent temperature delta
 
• Radar (Aero-sensing)
Two bands were used, X and P.
 

	X-band	P-band
Format	digital	digital
Spatial resolution	0.5 m	2.5 m
Wavelength		70 cm
Penetrating vegetation		35 cm
Operating frequency		390-450 kHz
Polarization		HH
Pulse repetition frequency		up to 16 kHz
Ground resolution		up to 3 x 3 m
Swath width		1 to 15 km
Estimated absolute positioning accuracy		< 1 m
Control unit	DGPS, CCNS Aerocontrol	DGPS, CCNS Aerocontrol

The radar is provided with CCNS and DGPS.
 
• Leica RC-30 camera (Eurosense)

 

Type	Colour and colour infrared
Format	Fimm + scan
Control unit	dGPS, CCNS OMNISTAR
Stabilized mount	Leica PAV 30
Lens	f = 30 cm, f/4

The camera is provided with a forward motion compensation and INS.